I'm sure I've heard of a computer software program that enables the user to play a solo piece of music( piano, guitar) into the computer and have it printed out in standard music format( i.e. crochets, quavers etc). Please tell me that I haven't simply dreamed or imagined this!

Yes, but is the notation usable? There are lots of MIDI's that produce overly-accurate notation that recorded every tiny variation in note length produced by a human playing or singing. Those MIDI's are useless for anything except listening, because they are a sequence of goofy note lengths and funny ties.

Don't spend money on software till you know if this problem has been solved.

As far as I know, producing usable music notation (sticks and dots) is a rather time-consuming process which requires telling your computer the note-length and pitch. Simple music, like a dance tune, can go pretty fast. A Beethoven piano concerto, not so fast.

That video about the Sonuus product says it can produce tablature, not sticks & dots. (Their product is for electric bass guitar.) And there was something else about it just being for bass lines. In addition to the Sonuus unit, you need a computer that's MIDI equiped, and you need software, (apparently unspecified) on that computer. I didn't watch it all - the kidly squealing on the electric guitar got on my nerves too much.

ok Leenia, ignore that particular video, or at least don't get tied up in it's specific scenario details.

Nobody as yet as I can find has uploaded a simpler demonstration tutorial illustrating basic vocal pitch to midi conversion for realistically usable notation with a Sonuus product.

.. and there is a slightly more expensive general purpose USB version of the pitch to midi converter that is not marketed specifically only to guitarists.

I know from experience how well it works with electric guitars, so I feel fairly well assured that with practiced careful use it could be just as easy to convert clearly sung reasonably in tune vocal melodies.

With the practical option of manually tidying up individual notes afterwards in your chosen sequencing software.

I am not the kind of person to be easily seduced by product marketing claims, but in this instance I am inclined to accept that it may be genuinely achievable.

The real problem is that sticks and dots never literally correspond to what is played. Written notes are just instructions that the performer must interpret. That works the other way, too, so that what is actually performed has to be trimmed and cleaned up according to the conventions of notation, before you've got something useable on the page.

This is true whether you're using software, or doing it the old fashioned way with pen and ink--probably a good thing, or musicians would be unnecessary...

I haven't used Sonuus, but recent observations suggest that the capability to render multi-part audio to notation may be very near on the horizon. Melodyne (the pitch-correction people) are putting out a version that purports to identify all the notes in a polyphonic audio clip and correct them independently. One would think that the ability to computer-ly recognize the notes would lead directly to the ability to put them out as notation or MIDI. As far as the horror raw MIDI recordings make of the notation, leeneia, I've found in my messing about with sequencers that the right "quantize" settings can handle 90% of the cleaning-up. The last bit will always be up to the human, but it can get rid of most of the mess and give you something to work with. -Glenn

Punkfolkrocker is correct in that the G2M (guitar to MIDI), b2M (Bass to MIDI) and i2M (Guitar/Bass to USB - MIDI and original signal) can all be used with other instruments.

They are monophonic but we have had users successfully try the devices with wind instruments, violins, and even voice. Where microphones have been used (rather than a pickup), it has sometimes been necessary to route the signal through a mixer or pre-amp.